Maddie Bloom & the Fae Academy Emily Jenkins Publication date: June 21st 2022 Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult
Welcome to Fae Academy, where if the Sluagh Sidhe lurking in the woods doesn’t get you, the homework just might…
Maddie Bloom is dreading sophomore year. Not only is her mom’s mysterious illness getting worse, but it’s also a brand-new year of her longtime bully to look forward to. Because who doesn’t love getting swirlies in the newly renovated girls’ bathroom? But then the accident happens. The one where she’s escaping said bully and accidentally summons a magical portal that drops her right into the foyer of a literal castle.
That’s when the big reveals start…
Faeries exist.
Maddie is half-fae. Which is how she ended up in Figstern’s Academy for Excellence, aka Fae Academy.
And Maddie’s uncontrolled magic? It’s slowly poisoning her mom.
When she’s given the chance to stay and learn to control her gifts to save her mom, the choice is clear. But Maddie’s not exactly welcome at Fae Academy. Bullies exist even in the magical world, and don’t get her started on the vindictive hobgoblin or the disgraced prince of the Autumn Court.
Still, not all is what it seems at Fae Academy. And the more Maddie digs, the more secrets she uncovers. Secrets that could threaten her life, her mother’s life, and the future of the fae world itself.
I flipped onto my back, spitting mulch from my mouth. I was seconds from pushing myself into a sitting position when the ground vibrated beneath me, courtesy of Sam’s rapidly approaching footsteps. Her bloodlust rippled through the air; that’s how excited she was to have me where she wanted me.
Get up! My inner voice yelled at me.
I listened, but instantly regretted it. Sharp pain shot through my torso from the impact of the fall, and my stomach lurched as Samantha leered down at me. She was way too close for comfort – to where I could distinguish freckles from blemishes.
I swallowed, heat rising to my face. I had a feeling my life was about to flash before my eyes.
But before I could reflect on the short, uneventful fifteen years that I’d walked this Earth, I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye.
I turned my head sideways, and a strange warmth spread over my body, engulfing me from head to toe.
To my left, the air was… shimmering.
I blinked. Once, twice, a third time, but it was still there. A twinkling, transparent curtain swaying in mid-air and luring me in. Calling for me. I’m not exaggerating, either.
I swear it was chanting my name repeatedly.
Meanwhile, in front of me, Sam was preparing to pounce like a predator.
Without thinking, without understanding what was going on, I dodged, rolling toward the strange, glistening air to my left. And somehow, the space swallowed me whole, swooping me out of the playground and away from Sam’s clutches just as she reached out to make good on her promise to make me pay for forcing her to run.
I caught one last glimpse of her stunned face.
And then she disappeared from my view.
Or was it me who disappeared?
Whatever the case, the world as I, Maddie Bloom, knew it, was gone.
Author Bio:
Hi, my name is Emily Jenkins. I’m a high school student and wrestle, and I also happen to be the USA National East Coast Jr Teen! After writing a children’s book about bullying in 2020 (Wrestling Girl Takes Down Bullies), I was inspired to keep creating stories—which is how the Maddie Bloom series was born.
In my free time, I love collecting socks, cooking, and sewing clothes for my dog.
He tears them up. It sort of breaks my heart. I sew more.
Yep, it’s a vicious cycle. :D
Wanna keep up with my updates?
Sign up for my newsletter here: http://eepurl.com/h3oXtL
The Indigo Heather Siegel Publication date: June 1st 2022 Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
Jett Hart, a 16-year-old girl from New Jersey, refuses to accept the diagnosis that her mother is brain-dead. Yes, Mom’s long-comatose body seems like an empty shell. But there was that split-second, weird time Jett swears she lifted out from her own body and travelled to an indigo-colored, starry space, where she felt Mom’s presence.
Now, as Jett’s caretaking Aunt threatens to pull Mom’s life support, Jett must find this mysterious indigo place again and return her mother to her body before it’s too late. The bad news is that only her schoolmate Farold — who may or may not give off a more-than-friends vibe — believes she can do this. The good news is that he’s an amateur quantum physicist in training and has some ideas about how to help Jett get back “up there.”
Even if Jett manages to find Mom in the “indigo,” can she bring her back to her body? While also staying connected to her own “empty shell” below? And, what if . . . someone is trying to stop her?
A teen thriller offering astral projection cosmology, life cords, parallel universes, and wormholes, THE INDIGO is a wild trip through one person’s consciousness “above,” her interconnected reality “below,” and the psychological and potentially fatal dangers of being disconnected from both.
“I didn’t know the school had a Quantum Club,” says a girl passing by. Popular. A junior, in black Lululemon leggings.
“What the hell’s ‘quantum’?” a familiar voice says. “Oh . . . that explains it.” I turn to see my cousin Meghan looking in my direction. Hair highlighted blond. Glossy pink lips. We are nearly the same age, and worlds apart.
“Don’t know and don’t care,” a beefy senior guy says. “Let’s go eat.”
“Oh, Matty, all you care about is food.” Meghan giggles as they continue walking.
Truthfully, I don’t know what quantum is either, but a quick Google search gives me the answer:
The study of physics that allows for particles to be in two states at the same time.
“That’s weird,” I say out loud to no one.
I head for the cafeteria, intrigued…
There are three people seated in the sea-foam-green cabbage-smelling room. No surprise Mickey Mizner and Brian Leonard are two of them.
“My problem is I’ve got everything prepped for ampage past 27MHz,” Mickey says, blowing dark bangs off square-framed glasses. “I just need to hit ionosphere at the right angle—” He taps a black box on the table, the size of a breadbox, with knobs and buttons. From here, I make out the words Galaxy Torchlighter 825.
“—Sweet, isn’t she?”
“Sweet and illegal to jack up,” Brian replies.
The new guy swigs from an Orangina and scribbles in his notebook, his white braided bracelets scratching against the Formica tabletop. He’s wearing an MIT sweatshirt, and peeking out from the neckline is a black rope necklace. At the ends of his hair, gold beads catch the fluorescent light.
“It’s not a bad start,” he says, looking up and taking a swig of orange soda. “But can you get someone on the other end of the world to receive the signal? The antipode must be, what, Australia?”
“That’s what I told you,” Brian says. He’s wearing a uniform from the ice cream store Sunset Scoops: a brown wavy smock made to resemble dripping hot fudge, and a maraschino cherry hat.
“Wait, the what is Australia?” Mickey asks.
“It means ‘opposite,’ ” I say, reaching the table. “Geographically, right?”
The new guy grins at me, his eyes twinkling with approval. And I’m not going to lie: I can’t help but grin back. I slide into the end seat.
“Farold,” he says.
“Jett.”
“Well, now that we got that out of the way,” Brian cuts in. “I’m thinking Electromagnetic Induction. The hypothesis is that a current can create a magnetic field.”
“Also not bad.” Farold scribbles again and glances up. “But you’d have to check if it’s already been done.” He has a singsong quality to his words. I like the way “realize” is “real’izze.”
Mickey shoulders Brian. “That’s what I told you.” He turns to Farold. “Anyway, if I find someone across the world, in an antipode” — he glances to me — “think it’s worth seeing if my radio’s skip is capable?”
Brian shoves back. “Mine may be done, but there’s nothing yet on what can and cannot escape the said magnetic field. . . .”
“They’re both solid starts.” Farold draws his fist to rest beneath his sculpted jaw line, looking suddenly like the art room’s knockoff sculpture of Michelangelo’s “The Thinker.” “But since this is going to be a competition for MIT, the best science institution in the country, we’ll have to shoot beyond the rudimentary. . . . Any other ideas?”
Three faces turn to me. One cute as hell. But I’m here to listen. Besides, I can’t take the rejection again.
“Every idea has merit,” Farold says.
“He’s dope, Jett,” Mickey says, which coming from him sounds anything but dope.
“If she doesn’t have any ideas . . . ” Brian says.
“I don’t . . . I mean, I thought . . . I don’t know, maybe we were going to talk about quantum physics or whatever, not enter a competition.”
“You study quantum physics?” Farold asks.
“No . . . but it sounds interesting.”
“Which part?”
I could feel defensive, but there’s something about the way he asks, earnestly, and the way he looks at me, so open and curious. “I . . . guess . . . I liked what your flier said. It made me think. Wonder, really. Something I’ve been thinking about. The idea of things being in two separate places at the same time?”
He smiles again, right through me, sending a tingle along my neck. “I’m actually working on something that poses that exact question. But it’s hard to prove. I mean, so far, no one has . . . supported it.”
“I hear that.”
“I had a feeling you might.”
“How would you have a feeling about that?”
“Your hesitation.” Our eyes affix. Is it my imagination or is there something palpable between us?
“Tell me your idea,” he says.
“Tell me yours.”
“You guys know we’re in the room, right?” Brian says.
Farold turns to him. “Two particles in separate boxes.”
“Following,” Mickey says.
He waves his hand, drawing us all in. “It’s proven they can communicate with one another and influence each other’s physical spin. Well, I propose they relate to one another in a nonscientific way. In a way we can’t really yet name. That they can speak to one another . . . by sensing one another.”
His eyes meet mine, alight, full of possibility. “Your turn.”
And like that, I find myself blurting the story I promised I’d stop telling people:
“There was an accident. . . . I could tell my mother wasn’t there. . . . And then this thing happened at the hospital. . . . But I’ve tried everything and can’t get back. . . .”
“What have you tried?” Farold asks.
“You name it. Re-creating the events. Dreaming and setting an alarm. I’ve tried something called the rope technique, and the ladder technique. Also, rolling out, driving out, rotating, and yo-yo’ing, which is basically trying to climb, drive, or shimmy out of my body. I’ve tried the point-shift method and the picture technique, in which I’m supposed to envision myself hovering at the ceiling, looking down at my bed. I’ve even sent away for this—”
I pluck the envelope from my bag and tear it open.
That’s when Mickey and Brian call it a day.
“Next Thursday?” Mickey asks, gathering his CB radio.
“Yeah, I gotta split too,” Brian adds. “You’re awesome, man. . . . Uh, good luck, Jett.” Brian tips his ice cream cone hat and exits the cafeteria, leaving me alone with Farold, my heart sinking at the sight of the DVD on the table between us.
It’s not the cheesy clouds against sky on the circular sticker adhered to the DVD that rushes blood to my cheeks, but the airbrushed, ethereal angel flying through those clouds.
At $39.99, this cost me more than four hours of librarian work. Why did I think this was a good idea to share — or buy?
Farold slides the disc into his laptop, turning the device for both of us to see. Even the digital quality is pathetic. Two women wearing flowing garb and seeming to float on a cloud discuss how they came to learn under the tutelage of the Dr. Reflexology guy, the art of soul travel by aligning their chakras — what they can help me do for the next hour. Though if I want to learn the nine secrets to launching myself, I will need to send away for the DVD package. For a mere $69.99 more.
I want to crawl under the table.
“I didn’t know it would be this—”
“—cheapjack.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s what we say in Trinidad. Or in English, ‘cringe-y.’ ”
And that’s my cue.
I stand, slinging my backpack on, and extend my palm for the DVD, even knowing as pathetic as it is, I am going to watch it — a thought that makes my cheeks even hotter. Because that’s how desperate I’ve become, and I hate myself for it. “Anyway . . . if you can just keep everything I said earlier to yourself.”
He pops out the DVD and walks around the table to stand before me, a foot taller. “What happens in Quantum Club stays in Quantum Club.” He edges close enough for me to smell a delicious vanilla scent wafting from his sweatshirt, to feel those tingles again, and to see in his pupils gold flecks that look like stars.
“Could be a multiverse, you know. That Indigo place?” His hand grazes my wrist as he places the plastic disc back in my palm. “Alternate realities are always taking place. The name for it in quantum mechanics is the Many Interacting Worlds.”
Prickles down my neck. “Are you saying . . . you believe me?”
“There are no absolute proofs in quantum theory. It’s about what we can measure, and to what precision.” He seems to have an idea, darts back to his notebook, and scribbles.
“We’re going to need to know what’s been documented on the theory so far, and under what conditions.” More scribbling. “Oh, and what laws govern these . . . phenomena. So . . . maybe that’s not a total waste?” He nods to the DVD.
I place it on the table, suppressing tears, and take a seat.
Author Bio:
Heather Siegel is the author of THE KING & THE QUIRKY, and OUT FROM THE UNDERWORLD. She teaches academic and creative writing, holds an MFA from The New School University, and lives with her family in Southern Florida.
Perilune Karri Thompson (The Legend of Tena, #2) Publication date: March 8th 2022 Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult
A truce has brought the Grove peace—but things are not as they appear.
Deep within a secret rainforest, live the keepers of unknown spells—a lost Landaffen colony with the power to keep Laura from fulfilling her fate by setting a trap and using Prince Brell as bait.
But Laura has become more Landaffen than human, her abilities sharpening as she infiltrates the forgotten and unforgiving Grove. She must learn to control the colony’s magic before their powers are at their peak.
If she fails, Prince Brell will die, and the joining of both worlds will be incomplete. It is Laura’s duty. Her calling. Faith must be restored, and the enemy defeated.
With a broken treaty and imminent conflict bringing death and war, Laura must build trust and bring order . . . before the PERILUNE!
“You’re not supposed to be doing this!” I warned. “You’re breaking an agreement between kings.”
“An arrangement concerning a half-race is not a contract to keep,” Daveen said.
“What do you want?” I asked and took two steps backward, stretching out my arms to catch my balance as I lifted my feet from the snow.
“This is not about what we want,” Reenk said. “It is about what we need.”
I reached behind my back to grab the door handle, but I was too far away from the door.
“Why are you here?” I asked again. “What do you―?”
“You are to come with us,” Reenk said. She patted her sword through her jacket.
Daveen pulled a coil of rope from his backpack. He pulled his feet through the snow and stood next to her.
I readied my right foot to push off while keeping my eyes on theirs. With one leap, I reached the door. Daveen sprung forward, catching me by the arm with one hand and prying my fingers from the handle with the other.
I kicked behind me, tugging to jerk free, and fell to my knees. My backpack landed in the snow. Daveen yanked my arm, and I pulled him to the ground next to me. I rolled on top of him. Holding him down with one hand and using all my weight, I worked to get to my feet.
My coat collar wrenched hard against my throat, cutting into my skin. Reenk had me by the hood, and as she pulled, it became harder for me to breathe. I shoved my fingers between the top of the zipper and my neck, twisting away as I rose to my feet.
From behind, Daveen grabbed me around the arms and waist, holding me with such force, I was unable to move my arms or raise my feet.
The door flung open, but neither Laramiss moved.
Todd walked from the building. “Hey! What are you doing? Let go of her!” Todd screamed.
Daveen tightened his grip, and he and Reenk threw confused glances at one another.
Author Bio:
Karri Thompson, a native of San Diego, attended San Diego State University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and master’s degree in education. When she’s not writing novels and teaching high school English, she can be found nerding out at San Diego Comic-Con and cooking delicious meals for her family. Karri is the recipient of the San Diego Book Awards Best Published Young Adult Novel for 2014.
My plan was to sign up via Expresso Tour for a Net Galley ARC release during November. I wrote the email and then chaos with kids happened, and I didn’t click send.
When I realised my mistake, I emailed Giselle. Unfortunately, November was booked up and her easiest space was after Dec. This was no good to me as I wanted to spread the word of my upcoming release.
Giselle then told me about a Book Blitz. It sounded perfect. Anyone, interested in Ocean Heart can sign up and spread the word during the first week of Nov.
Keep your eyes peeled for blogs showcasing Ocean Heart. I’ll be sharing them to my Instagram stories and Twitter so you don’t miss out.
